Virgin Australia April Fools’ Campaign 2016

The Challenge:

Virgin Australia is renowned as being a brand that’s not only premium, but one with an irreverent sense of humour, and a famous inclination to push the boundaries. April Fools’ Day marks a time of year where Virgin Australia can truly live those values, and have some fun in the process.

Virgin Australia is renowned as being a brand that’s not only premium, but one with an irreverent sense of humour, and a famous inclination to push the boundaries. April Fools’ Day marks a time of year where Virgin Australia can truly live those values, and have some fun in the process.

Working with Virgin Australia, Pulse is focused on positioning the brand as a premium, full service airline. In 2016 we used April Fools’ Day as an opportunity to highlight that delivering service excellence to flyers of all ages is at the heart of what they do.

Armed with the insight that every year more than 900,000 kids fly with the carrier, Virgin Australia and Pulse partnered to produce a piece of social content celebrating the airline’s youngest and arguably most discerning travellers – kids.

The Strategy:

In a world first, timed in line with April Fools’ Day, Pulse created a dedicated aircraft cabin that was 100% adult-free: Virgin Australia Kids Class.

In a world first, timed in line with April Fools’ Day, Pulse created a dedicated aircraft cabin that was 100% adult-free: Virgin Australia Kids Class.

A short video showcased all aspects of the brand’s fictitious new cabin created just for kids. The video was released on Facebook on the 1st April, with a link and the words, “Introducing Virgin Australia Kids Class – the world’s first kids-only aircraft cabin.”

Embracing Virgin’s appetite for fun we created the ultimate flying experience for young flyers. Incorporating a nursery rhyme-esque narrative we introduced Australia to a new class of travel for kids with a series of child-dedicated features including:

Kickable seats

A selection of colouring in and story books

Teddy bear menu

Chewable safety card

A concierge Trunki service to the gate

Bubble-filled cabin during story time

Tent forts to help kids get to sleep

Hopscotch down the aisle

The dynamic video content was seeded to Virgin’s social channels early on April 1st. Following the initial post, the news of Kids Class’ “launch” was sent to Australian and global news media.

The Result:

The video generated nearly 1.2 million views across Facebook and YouTube, over 76,000 engagements (likes, comments and shares) and a total social reach of over 3.45 million. The Virgin Australia Kids Class video is the highest reaching piece of content ever posted on Virgin Australia’s channels.

News of Kids Class drove 370 coverage clips including Channel 10 News, Channel 9 News, Channel 7 News, ABC News24 the Sydney Morning Herald, Fairfax Traveller, News.com.au,Yahoo!7, SkyNews.com.au, Mashable and Mumbrella. It garnered global broadcast coverage including an April Fools’ segment leading spot on America’s number one morning television show, Good Morning America, which in itself reached more than 5 million viewers, as well as Nightline New York. In all there were 21 pieces of international news coverage outside Australia.

It is too early to establish business results from the campaign, however last April Fool’s Day Pulse partnered with Virgin Australia on the World’s First Pet Lounge video which resulted in a 40% increase in traffic to the destination website.